Friday night Youngest Son and I saddled up and rode to Charlotte for a meet and greet with the Carolina chapter of the Mustang Forums. There were seven cars, six of them were California Specials and the last had CS wheels. This has been a recurring theme with the Carolina MF'ers meet and greets.

spitting rain so we didn't have the turnout we were hoping for, but we still had eighteen cars in the judging ranging from a very clean 65 fastback to a brand-new 2012 California Special. We also had two non-Mustangs, a Galaxy convertible and a superb 71 Torino.

Once we got the cars in and parked the sun blessed us with it's appearance and it turned out to be a pretty good day.

More pics for the Carolina MF'ers can be seen here, and more pictures from the HCMC car

And here's something to ponder. The weekend before the originally scheduled car show weekend was beautiful, the originally scheduled weekend and the weekend it was actually held were both wet, next weekend is supposed to be beautiful again.

of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

16 September 2011

I don't have the temperament to be in law enforcement. I know that about myself. I don't have the patience to deal with people as a general rule, and that's one of the several reasons I didn't take up the offer to join one of the countless police forces across the country when I retired from the Navy.

I'm better off dealing with machines. Machines are predictable and they follow the script, and when they don't you can figure out whats wrong, fix it, and they're back on point. People, not so much.

Most of us are going to have very little interaction with the police, and for the most part when we do it is going to be the mark of a bad day. That means that usually the guys (and gals, can't forget them) in blue don't get to see us at our best.

Just like all of us have bad days, they are human, too, and they have bad days as well. It's the bad days that get caught on tape and put on the news.

So earlier when I put up my post about HR 822 (thanks Sean) I saw a link to recent news articles about a quarter of the way down the page. In those links was an article about law enforcement opposing the resolution.

I tend to judge some things by who is opposed to it, so this to me seemed like a positive endorsement of HR822 (like I needed another one). However when I clicked on the link I found that there seems to be only one entity that opposes the bill - the Philadelphia PD.

Marqus did what many other Philly residents do - he applied for a Florida non-resident permit. Since Florida is a must-issue state, and since Marqus did not have any felony convictions, the permit was issued. And, since PA reciprocates with FL, that means he was once more legal to carry in Philadelphia. This, by the way, is the issue that sticks in the craw of the Philly PD - they said no and the citizen, rather than meekly go away, went around them.

Fast forward to 2010; Mr Hill sees some teenagers out minding their own business selling lemonade and cookies - oops, change that to burglarizing cars, his being among them - and he shot one of them. Thirteen times.

This incident is being used as a good reason not to allow national reciprocity, because if you do that then...what exactly? Since Mr Hill was already holding a valid permit recognized by the State of PA, what would the proposed law do that is not already being done in this particular case?

I'm not condoning the actions of Marqus Hill, I was not there and I don't know the particulars of the case. Perhaps he is a bad, bad man and needs to be buried under the jail, perhaps he lives in a bad neighborhood and felt threatened enough to shoot thirteen times, I don't know and until the facts come out in the trial neither do you. That's how we still do things here for the most part, first we have the trial and then we have the execution (except in the press).

I'm also not going to go into depth on the obviously flawed reasoning of the Philly PD or Philly, City Of regarding gun laws, and I'm certainly not going to go off on a well-justified rant as to the appropriateness of having to obtain permission to exercise a Constitutionally protected natural right. I think you know where I stand on such issues.

12 September 2011

A co-worker just told me a tale about a confrontation in a parking lot.

He does not have his concealed carry permit so he was not armed. He did have a Leatherman type tool in a pouch on his belt, this becomes significant later in the story.

He was walking out of a restaurant picking up a carry out order when a man approached him wanting to give him a package. He politely told the man he was not interested in the package and he kept walking towards his vehicle.

The man became belligerent and charged him while making verbal threats. At the last moment he stepped to the side and let the man charge on past, and when the man turned to face him he had his hand on the Leatherman with that side turned away.

He pulled the velcro flap up on the Leatherman pouch and told the man once more he wasn't interested. Apparently the sound of ripping velcro made the man believe he was armed, so while still making verbal threats the man turned and walked away. When my co-worker pulled out his cell phone to call the police, the man ran away.

What would I have done, my co-worker wants to know? I don't know what I would have done, but I am sure that I would have at least shown my carry weapon (as long as I had it, if the restaurant was one that served alcohol I would not have legally been able to have it with me even to pick up a carry out order; if I had been coming home from or going to my defenseless victim zone workplace I likewise would not have had it with me).

I'm too fat and slow to run, I told him, and too old to fight, so that only leaves me one option. If I had had my son with me the time frame for that option would have shortened considerably. I most likely would have drawn and prayed that the man was just a bully and would see that there was no profit in continuing to harass me, and hopefully he would have gone his way. That's the way I think it would have ended up since that is the way it went for him.

When all is said and done everything worked out well, but it is something that he says has been torturing him all weekend. I told him it was perfectly legal to carry openly without any permission slip from the State, and if he had been openly carrying maybe he would not have been approached at all. We then discussed the pros and cons and the what-ifs and the maybes.

We discussed shooting to wound vs shooting to kill, and I informed him there wasn't any such damn thing. You shoot to stop the threat, as much as you need to, and then you shut your pie hole and get a good defense attorney. If all goes well you won't need one, but if it goes sideways its better to have one on call. In the end that was the only thing I could tell him.

10 September 2011

Finally after about five hours of work it came up and connected and seemed to be acting fine, but wouldn't connect to the printer (online forums were less than helpful, their solution was to get a non-Lexmark printer) and wouldn't share files (yes, the proper software is installed).

Not fifteen minutes after he left the damn thing dropped off the network and won't reconnect.

I'm going with his suggestion to get a bigger hard-drive so that Windows XP and Ubuntu can both be installed. That way I can play with Ubuntu to my heart's content and still have access to my files and printer the rest of the time.

09 September 2011

I went to the tool store today to get the drill bits and punches I needed for my Saiga conversion.

I don't have all the pieces yet, but I decided since I had the time that I would go ahead and start, and that way if I needed to get anything else I would know about it in plenty of time.

Following the instructions I disassembled the old trigger group and removed the trigger guard and plate. After a quick shot of paint and a little grinding to the new hammer to fit the bolt lock plate everything is ready to go back together.

06 September 2011

From Sithy Things comes this meme, list your favorites of these ten things:

#1– Favorite candy: I'm not really big into sweets. Pass.
#2– Favorite movie: The Outlaw Josey Wales is a favorite, as is Casablanca, anything by Monty Python and of course no self-respecting Browncoat would fail to list Serenity.
#3– Favorite drink: Demon's Hop Yard IPA, but since I can't get that here, Drifters IPA or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale will have to do.
#4– Favorite dessert: Once again, not a big fan of the sweets. Pass. Cheesecake! Especially with strawberry topping, although cherry is OK, too.
#5– Favorite city: Not a big fan of cities as a general rule, but if I have to pick one I'd say Raleigh because I can walk home from there if I must.
#6– Favorite pasttime: Reading.
#7– Favorite clothing: Pajamas.
#8– Favorite animal: Cows, because they make such delicious steaks.
#9– Favorite flower: Roses.
#10 Favorite music: Yes. I have everything from Beethoven to Green Jelly in my collection, although I'm not a big fan of hip-hop (or whatever the hell they are calling it these days) as a general rule.

03 September 2011

I went looking around for Saiga stuff and found a forum, not unexpectedly I might add. Since the Saiga is manufactured by the same people and along the same lines as the infamous AK-47 it is quite possible, and even encouraged, to move the trigger group forward from it's sporter configuration to the normal AK spot.

Moving the trigger group gets rid of some unnecessary connecting hardware, gives better trigger operation, better ergonomics, and shortens the rifle up by a couple of inches which improves its handling a bit. It also virtually guarantees compliance with Federal law regarding imported rifles if the furniture gets changed out as well.

With this parts listing (not counting the bipod, scope rail or sling) as long as I'm not using the standard Saiga magazine I'm in full 922r compliance. However, if I decide I want to use the shorter Saiga magazine I need a few more domestic parts.

Moving the trigger group installs three more domestic parts, which makes it safe to use the Saiga magazine. Looking around the web one can find many conversion instructions, but this one is the one I think I will use, mostly because the author seems to have started from the same basic skillset that I possess.

02 September 2011

Last night was grill night, burgers first and then ribs. The ribs get better with each attempt and last night they were absolutely perfect.

I was going to try Brigid's bacon coleslaw on the burgers, but when I got everything together I discovered that Youngest Son had depleted the bacon supply. How embarrassing, running out of bacon??? Inconceivable!

The next pack of bacon is getting frozen so that it will be there when I want it.

Today is an open-carry day, I have a luncheon with Triangle Open Carry. This will be my third such event, I can't yet say that I am entirely comfortable with open carry but so far it hasn't been any trouble at all. Unlike this guy, who's plight reminds us that if the law is on the books you can be charged with it (the law in question is "going armed to the terror of the public" which I have been assured would never be used unless you are waving the gun around and generally acting like a jackass, which so far it doesn't look like this guy was doing).

Last but not least, I just got my email from Brownells letting me know that my ammo can with 420 rounds of .223 ammo is on it's way. So, I took an inventory:

1723 rounds of 7.62x54R, 1320 of it still in the big green cans
746 rounds of .45 ACP FMJ target loads and another 34 hollowpoints
400+ rounds of .22LR (I didn't count it all but I have most of a 525 round box left)
85 rounds of 12ga #8 shot, 29 rounds of #7 1/2, and 10 rounds of #00 buckshot
10 rounds of 129gr and 10 rounds of 140gr 6.5x50mm Japanese 258 268 rounds of .223 plus the 420 on the way. (Just found another ten rounds)

This doesn't include anything I have loaded, of course. That should do me for a while.